Introduction-
Censorship means a restriction on an individual’s right to express his/her ideas through any means of communication, given that such expression is harmful. In India, censorship is seldom used by the State to systematically silence dissent. Within society, there is always a section that is opposed to complete liberalism. These groups support the existence of the current ‘Status Quo’ with the compulsion to encourage some sort of social control. This section has always put forward the counter concept of censorship, propagating against radical ideas. The Censorship era starts with the end of 1948 with the governments of Bombay and Madras publishing a “Production Code”, which listed down various guidelines set for the producers of films. This was basically done to ensure that the spectrum through which people see the industry changes. But, it led to no substantial difference. 1 Situations changed after the Government of India (Amendment) Act 1949. The Central Government soon brought the sanctioning of cinematograph films for exhibition under the Union List. This was a crucial provision as in the Government of India Act 1935, censorship of films was a current subject and was under the control of both central and the provincial governments. But now, the Central Legislature could supersede Provincial laws, but the responsibility of
executive action was still vested with the Provincial government. Now, let’s have a look at various censorship laws and their transformation over the years.
The Cinematograph Act, 1952-
The main purpose behind adopting the Cinematograph Act 1952 was the separation of the provisions relating to licensing and regulating cinemas (State subject) 2 from sanctioning the films for exhibition (Union subject) 3 . The Act was divided into four parts- I, II, III, and IV. Preliminary sections dealing with definitions and applicability of the Act were covered in part I. Part II deals with certification of films for public exhibition. The Section 3 constitutes a centralized board, “The Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, constitute a Board of Film Censors, consisting of such number of persons as may be prescribed, for the purpose of sanctioning and certifying films as suitable for unrestricted public exhibition or for public exhibition restricted to adults and prescribed in the manner in which the board shall exercise the powers conferred on it by this act.” Furthermore, the Section 4 of the same Act talks about granting of ‘U’ and ‘A’ certificates. Under Section 8, the Central government was granted power to make various rules. As a result of this, a 4 page document was released which was a directive to examining committees that must be taken into consideration before determining that the film is suitable for public exhibition or not. 4 This Act was considerably important because they acted as a model for other prospective legislations, which applied to states under control of the Central government.
1953 Modifications-
The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act of 1953 was passed to basically make the penalty clauses enforceable and to strengthen the provisional powers vested with the government. The penalties included the suspension of a film from exhibition for such period as may be specified but not exceeding two years. Some major alterations were made in The Cinematograph Act 1951 like limiting the validity of a censorship certificate to five years. It was established that the certificate once granted may not fall within reasonable standards for a long time and it needs to be checked with the present levels.
1954 Directives-
The CBFC issued ‘Directives to examining committees’ in September 1954 regarding several guidelines to be followed to make a film suitable for public exhibition. The three important principles in the directive were-
1. No picture shall be certified for public exhibition which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience shall not be thrown on the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.
2. Standards of life, having regard to the standards of the country and the people to which the story relates, shall not be so portrayed as to deprave the morality of the audience.
3. The prevailing laws shall not be so ridiculed as to create sympathy for violation of such laws. Various factors were analyzed before coming to this conclusion. Some of the parameters included- Social order, foreign relationship, crime, relations between opposite sexes etc.
Cinematograph Amendment Act 1959-
Various changes were made by this amendment. Sections 3,4,5,6 were amended and substituted by newly added sections 3, 4, 5, 5A, 5B, 5C. A crucial aspect was introduced through this legislation- “Principles for Guidance in Certifying films” which is the Section 5B. The two clauses added were 5 –
1. A film shall not be carried for public exhibition, if in the opinion of the authority competent to grant the certificate, the film or any part of it is against the interest of the security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality, or involves defamation or contempt of court or is likely to incite the mission of any offence.
2. Subject to the provisions contained in sub section(1) ,the Central Government may issue such directions as it may think fit setting out the principles which shall guide theauthority competent to grant certificate under this Act in sanctioning films for public exhibition.
The clauses added various important focal points- like it incorporated specific grounds through which the public exhibition of a film can be stopped, and it authorized express sanctioning of films for public exhibition. This concretized the State dominance over the film industry.
1960 Guidelines-
In 1960, the Government of India issued a set of guidelines dated 6 February 1960, under Section 5B (2) of the 1952 amended Act. These guidelines abolished whatever authority the CBFC was granted regarding film censorship. And, with the installation of a system where the rules and guidelines were administered by the bureaucracy-politician group, the State’s dominance was absolute and complete after these guidelines.
Estimate Committee-
The Estimate Committee worked from 1966-67 but could not finalize its report because of sudden dissolution of Lok Sabha in 1967. Subsequently, a new Estimate Committee was formed with the core suggestions being-
1. Relocation the Head quarter of the CBFC in a central city.
2. Reduction in the expenditure of administrative costs.
This led to a suitable modification of the code reflecting the spirit of the times.
Khosla Committee 1968-
On May 7 1965, Rajya Sabha passed a resolution asking for enquiry into the working of the censorship laws in India. This was heavily influenced by the severe criticisms from the general public. The Central government set up a High powered enquiry committee on Film censorship in 1968 with Justice G.D. Khosla as its chairman. 6 The committee did extensive research on the subject matter and came up with an elaborate report on the same. Some of the important propositions being-
1. The Regional Boards prevalent at that time should be abolished. 7
2. The board should appoint twenty persons from different regions and should view all the films before certification.
3. The decisions taken by the Board shall be final and the government shall be diverted of its Appellate and Revisional powers. 8
4. Various provisions relating to widening of the certificates was added.
Cinematograph (Amendment) Act 1973-
This amendment Act was passed by the Parliament to extend the provisions of the Cinematograph Act 1952 to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It had some bearing on the film censorship model as various interpretations changed. Cinematograph (Amendment) Act 1974-
After analyzing the recommendations made by the Khosla committee, the Central government added an amendment to the Cinematograph Act in 1974. The amendment constituted a Revising Committee to review if the film is in consonance of the guidelines laid down or not. It also established Appellate tribunals to hear the appeals against the decisions of the CBFC 9 . The Regional Boards were abolished and the subsequent powers were given to the Central boards to preview films for censorship 10.
Guidelines 1978-
These guidelines diverted attention of the Board on some crucial aspects of the society portrayed in a film- glorification or justification of violence, modus-operandi of criminals or other visuals or words likely to incite the commission of any offence, pointless or avoidable scenes of violence, cruelty and horror, vulgarity, obscenity and depravity, visuals or words contemptuous of racial , religious or other groups, depiction of scenes or visuals affecting sovereignty and integrity of India ,security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or public order and visuals and words involving defamation or contempt of court. 11 For the very first time, the CBFC was suggested to take into consideration the overall societal impact of a film on a society into consideration. It also provided that a film should be examined according to the contemporary standards and the people to which it relates.
12 National Film Policy 1979-
A working group on National Film Policy was set up after the conference of State Information Ministers held on 14 th November, 1977. The group was a fierce critic of the Revisional powers of the government. It recommended that except on grounds of integrity and sovereignty of India, security of state and friendly relations with foreign states, the Revisional and Appellate powers of the central government over the decisions of CBFC shall be taken away and given to a proper judicial tribunal. 13 They introduced a UA certificate with a view to warn the parents on the unsuitability of the film for children below 12 years of age. To strengthen the enforcement
machinery of the Board, three additional regional boards at Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Trivandrum were introduced.
Cinematograph (Amendment) Act 1981-
The government initiated a lot of changes after analyzing the recommendations from the Khosla committee and the working group. The Act also changed the name of Central Board of Film Censorship to Central Board of Film Certification. Two new film categories were introduced –
‘UA’ and ‘S’. The former was added to intimate the parents on the unsuitability of the film forwards below twelve years of age and the latter for a specific group of people interested in a particular theme. The Act provided for the constitution of an Appellate tribunal consisting of a chairman and not more than four members appointed by the Central government. The chairperson was required to be a retired judge of a High court or qualified for the same. The Central Government were granted powers to revoke or suspend the certificate granted by the CBFC in cases of public exhibition in violation of the provisions of Part II. Other significant features of the Act included – ‘provision for the adequate representation of the women (Rule 3A)’ and the ‘creation of a Chief Executive Officer at the headquarters in Bombay (Rule 9(1))’. This Act had an immense contribution on the prospective legislations.
Cinematograph (Amendment) Act 1984-
The laws related to regulation of media were less stringent. This created a big loophole in the industry. People started using pirated and banned films. In any neighborhood, people could ask their local service provider to show the films of their choice. The State sought to pass laws and stringent restrictions to curb the menace of video piracy and video certification.
Certification Guidelines 1991-
Till 1989-90, film censorship had three main basic tenets, namely responsibility and sensitivity of the film medium to, the moral values and standards of the society, respect for artistic expression and creativity, and responsiveness to social progress. In 1991, the Central
Government issued new guidelines in order to guide the process of film certification. With these guidelines, two more objectives were incorporated, namely providing, ‘a clean and healthy entertainment’, and ‘advocating good standards of films’. The said guidelines have guided the process of certification for the past 28 years. To sum it all up, we see here that, as on date, CBFC discharges its functions of certification as per-
The Cinematograph Act 1952
The Cinematograph (Certification) Rules, 1983
The Guidelines issued in 1991 by the central government under Section 5B of the
Cinematograph Act.
The development and popularity of ever increasing and making legislations keeping in mind the progressive nature of society can be tough at times. But, the legislature has done a fair job in dealing with the menaces and has a strong legislation in place.
REFERENCES:
1 PM Bakshi, “Censorship of Films: Some Glimpses from history”, Lawyers Collective (6 June 2001), available online
at http://www.lawyerscollective.org/mag/2001/6-jun.pdf.
2 Entry 33 of the State List.
3 Entry 60 of the Union List.
4 1Someswar Bhowmik, Cinema and Censorship -The politics of Control in India (Orient Black Swan 2009) 78.
5 https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/186551/7/08_chapter%203.pdf.pdf.
6 Resolution No.14/35/64 F.C dated 28th March 1968 by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
7 The Report of the Enquiry Committee on Film Censorship (Government of India 1969) 100.
8 The Report of the Enquiry Committee on Film Censorship (Government of India 1969) 95.
9 The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act 1974, s 10.
10 The Cinematograph (Amendment) Act 1974, Section 3.
11 Paragraph 2 of the Censorship Guidelines 1978.
12 Paragraph 3 of the Guidelines 1978, CF Miller v. California, (1973) 413 US 14, Ranjit Udeshi v. State of
Maharashtra, (1965) AIR SC 881.
13 Report of the Working Group on National Film Policy (Government of India 1980) 77.
By- Yug Sinha
